Southeastern junior safety Tommy Connors has been through this before. But this time, Connors said, there's a different vibe as the Lions go about dealing with losing their head coach for a while to medical issues.

This time, Connors said, there's a plan.

“It was a shock to hear,” Connors said of Wednesday's team meeting in which head coach Mike Lucas announced that he would miss the rest of the season in order to have heart surgery, leaving the team in the hands of offensive coordinator Tommy Condell as acting head coach.

“It was the quietest it's ever been,” Connors said. “It's been quiet before, but I've never felt the team in such deep emotion in that squad room before.

“During Coach Condell's speech, I was in tears because of what happened two years ago with Coach Dennis Roland,” Connors said of Lucas’ predecessor, who died of cancer back on Jan. 1. “I don't have that same feeling. I have a completely different feeling this time around. Definitely more positive, but more than positive and negative, it was they had a plan.”

And that's the feeling Condell has as well. When the Lions (3-3, 0-1) kick off Homecoming Saturday at 6 p.m. against Northwestern State (4-2, 1-0) in Strawberry Stadium, Condell won't have the luxury of his catbird seat up in the Strawberry Palace.

Instead he'll be on the sideline running the entire show instead of just half of it. But Condell sees it as as much of an opportunity for the coaching staff as it is a challenge.

“I don't feel (concerned) because of the guys around me,” Condell said Thursday. “When you don't have a strong framework or a foundation that's already been built, it's sand and then you're sinking. Here, it's already been built. And it's concrete.

“I think this is a good test. We preach and talk to the players about chaos all the time, and we're living it. But we have tools that we use to overcome it — and we're using them. The kids are not only learning it first hand, some of them are learning it maybe quicker than they wanted to.”

Just from an offensive standpoint, the Lions are in capable hands. Condell coached from the sideline last season, so that's nothing new, and offensive line coach Allen Rudolph is a former coordinator in his own right.

“Offensively, there's not going to be a huge change because I've been up and down before,” Condell said. “Logistically, for myself, the big thing is now to see the whole picture (offense as well as defense) and that will be an exciting challenge for myself.”

The biggest hole, however, will be on the defensive side, where Lucas — Roland's defensive coordinator — provided major input. Now the defensive game plan and adjustments will be fully under the direction of defensive coordinator Matt Webb.

But Webb has already earned Condell's confidence.

“You're giving a man an opportunity to now be more in charge of that and to demonstrate his prowess, and that's exciting,” Condell said. “If we didn't have qualified and quality people over there, that would be a major concern. And those kids know what to do.”

From a player's standpoint, Connors said, it's not that big a transition.

“He brings the same mentality, the same motivation, the same energy to the game,” Connors said of Condell. “Him and Coach Lucas work well together because of their intensity.

“We know it's going to be tough. But we're together. It's like us losing one of our family members, but we're still a family as a whole.”